‘Old school’ management ineffective for millennials

CEBU, Philippines - Businesses are advised to upgrade management styles and veer away from “old school” schemes to efficiently handle the creative pool of young talents now making their way into the corporate world.

Inspirational speaker Francis Kong said, in his recent visit to Cebu, that the high attrition rate experienced by companies today, especially those employing the younger generation widely known as the ‘millennials’, is caused by the company’s inability to handle the “horrible” but very creative generation.

If a company is able to manage this bunch of smart, yet unpredictable young employees, they would provide the best edge of innovations, creativity for the company.

According to Kong, most senior leaders in companies do not know how to handle them, the very reason why attrition rate is still high across industries.

"We are still using old management skills. To mismanage them [young people] is gonna be horrible," Kong said stressing the need for companies to overhaul management platform, cultures, in order to cater the new business environment.

According to Kong, as companies are preparing how to be competitive and stay in the global business game, change should start in training senior leaders, decision makers to understand the bizarre characteristic of young workers.

"These people do not leave their companies, but they leave their bosses," he said adding that managers or bosses who do not know to appreciate their employees, and apply motivational management skills are not anymore effective.

"Leaders should update their skills," he added.

Kong said the young workers have different personalities and traditional leadership won’t work for them anymore.

About 75 percent to 80 percent of the employees now are people born between 1982 to 2004, the generation Y, or the millennials.

If in the past high IQ (intelligence quotient) people are the stars in the qualification list, later followed by the discovery of people with high EQ (emotional quotient) as effective leaders, today, companies should hire people with high AQ (Adversity quotient) or better yet train their managers to learn this as this is going to be the blueprint of management in the (new) digital environment.

People who have high ability to bounce back after any collapse or change, or those that welcome change and don't resist change, are what the companies should employ as leaders.

For companies, which are dealing with consumers, Kong said "don't look at young people as [mere] consumers, but creators." (FREEMAN)